Chesney, Womack dish out new sounds

Friday, October 27, 2017 – Kenny Chesney went deep and live today, while Lee Ann Womack is out with a new album today on a new label.

Chesney is out with "Live in No Shoes Nation: 10 Years of Concerts" (Blue Chair/Columbia Nashville). Chesney listened to hundreds of hours of concerts and ended up choosing 13 songs from Foxboro Mass., where he has already played 17 stadium shows.

Womack puts out "The Lonely, The Lonesome & The Gone"
on ATO after spending most of her career on MCA and Sugar Hill. The 14-song disc was produced by husband Frank Liddell. She had a hand in writing half of the songs. She also covers "Long Black Veil" and songs penned by George Jones and Harlan Howard.

Canadian folk/roots trio The Wailin' Jennys return with "Fifteen" on Red House, the group's first release in six years. The group consists of Nicky Mehta and Ruth Moody and Heather Masse. Their last release was 2011's "Bright Morning Stars."

CD reviews for Kenny Chesney

Kenny Chesney's "Song for the Saints" is a step in the right direction for the popular country star. Inspired by the Hurricane Irma disaster, which hit Chesney personally as it destroyed a house he owned in the U.S. Virgin Islands, these songs are more serious and heartfelt than typical Chesney music.
Best of all is "Love for Love City," a reggae duet with Ziggy Marley incorporating steel drums into an inviting island mix. It's followed by a cover of Lord »»»

Kenny Chesney's "Live in No Shoes Nation" accurately recreates an experience of seeing the diminutive party animal live. Chesney has found an extremely lucrative niche as country music's Jimmy Buffett (although much of Buffett's island-y pop music appeals to many of today's non-discerning country music listeners). Also, with songs like "Pirate Flag," Chesney has even borrowed a few of Buffett's sea-related lyrical themes.
This live CD could have been »»»

The gospel, per Kenny Chesney's pseudo-spiritually-titled album, "Cosmic Hallelujah," is that the world is too crazy to make any sense of, and the only logical response is to drink more alcohol. (So, don't be surprised if there are more arrests for public intoxication at the performer's upcoming concert dates). Nearly every song includes lines about drinking alcohol - and not merely for the taste. This content will please many of his hard-partying fans. »»»

Editorial: Walking the talk –
When names like Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Waylon and the Hag are invoked, you're talking hard core country. These are the touchstones of country , the guys who made country music what it was and still is (or maybe can be). When these folks would sing about being down-and-out and the rough-and-tumble, they knew of what they were singing about. Fast forward a few years to the country singers of today. »»»

Concert Review: Pistol Annies hit the targets –
Pistol Annies, the all-star trio comprised of Miranda Lambert, Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley, made the last stop of its short tour a downtown Los Angeles date. This was the last show, that is, until after the pregnant Presley gives birth to her child. Traveling in support of the act's third album "Interstate Gospel," these talented... »»»

Concert Review: Williams brings the joy back –
It's not as if Lucinda Williams has been idle. Far from it this year, but 20 years on, Williams decided to trot out her masterpiece "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road" as the centerpiece of her tour. Music and artist have held up exceedingly well.
Williams had always been a well thought of performer, although she was not too big when it came... »»»

Suffice it to say that the past has always loomed large throughout Chip Taylor's career. That's all the more obvious if only for the fact that Taylor wrote some of the biggest pop hits of the '60s, "Wild Thing"... »»»

Dan Tyminski (known simply as "Tyminski" on his 2017 release "Southern Gothic") has traditional music roots and unassailable bluegrass street cred especially given his membership in Alison Krauss' Union Station. He is also a powerful songwriter and has been writing songs for himself and others for years now.... »»»

Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn have powerhouse individual talents; each has followed an estimable career path to where they find themselves today: making complex, but spare, records, writing music together and touring with their son Juno. Their new release, "Echoes In The Valley" features mostly songs written by Fleck and Washburn, banjos, Washburn's strong vocals and very little else.... »»»

Rodney Crowell's "Christmas Everywhere" is a (mostly) melancholy collection of songs, with Christmas time as its setting. It's a strong set of carefully worded tunes, set to widely varying musical backings. »»»

Songwriters Vanessa Olivarez and Elizabeth Elkins form the duo Granville Automatic, the name borrowed from a 19th Century typewriter. And, as you might guess, leaning on a name like that, they love to write about history. »»»

Blackberry Smoke's "The Southern Ground Sessions" EP is five versions of songs from the band's recent "Find a Light" album, along with a cover of Tom Petty's "You Got Lucky," which also features vocalist/violinist Amanda Shires. »»»

Jason Isbell didn't record this live effort at The Ryman Auditorium as a gesture to be country music's savior at The Mother Church of Country Music. The Alabama native's music is country-adjacent at best, more than it is traditional »»»